


Alien Witch

by Manawolfman



Category: Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 14:18:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10439532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manawolfman/pseuds/Manawolfman
Summary: A strange girl finds a stranger book





	

It had been a good haul this season.  The net nearly scraped the rocky bottom of the tunnel as Alicia dragged her catch behind her.  She kicked hard, struggling to surface into the airy interior.  Her luminous pupils shrank as the sun beamed down from a hole in the stone ceiling far above.  Her green skin glistened in the light as the water dripped from the tentacles upon her head.  With a webbed hand she pulled herself onto land, and her strong legs hoisted the net out, the fish still squirming within.

            Alicia turned to look upon her home, a hidden city of geometrically adhering stone and electrical illumination, far beyond the scope of those who lived outside the cavern.  She threw her catch onto a nearby slab, floating a foot above the ground, shifting only slightly horizontally at the added weight.  A splash behind her announced the surfacing of her brother, pulling up a smaller net of still fish.  She turned back to the slab, taking hold of a handle on it in one hand while she held her harpoon in the other.

            Alicia strode into town, greeted by many faces matching her own, their pupils raised in delight at the sight of her bounty.  She reached her home, nestled by a large crack in the cave wall, leading further into the caverns.  As she headed inside, she saw her brother, towing his floating slab behind him on his way to the market.  She still had cleaning to tend to first, as he would realize soon himself.

            Inside she transferred the net to a stone table, smooth rock with grooves for draining to the pipes leading into the floor.  She opened the net as the fish flopped about, a few spilling onto the floor.  As they wriggled, a gleam began to emerge from the pile.  Alicia wiped the fish aside to find an ornate book.  Its cover was made of scaled red leather, accented with silver plates.  The book opened to pages of a treated rubbery substance, written upon in a strange ink.  Her pupils whirled about the page, recognizing the writing from her studies of the outside world, and fearful of what exactly it spoke of. 

A taboo subject, meant for a chaotic world lacking her kind’s innovative thinking.  She knew just possessing such an item would entail for her, she had to get rid of it.  But the pages read of things that could surpass what her kind could do, spells that could accomplish in moments what might take her people weeks.  Why were such things forbidden?  Was it out of fear, or simply ignorance?  Alicia would find out for herself.

Alicia slinked out her front door with a satchel under her arm.  She darted to the crack, squeezing and contorting her way further in until finding an open space beyond.  The safety of the small chamber did little to calm her nerves, her fingers dripping blue ink of anxiety.  She opened the satchel and pulled forth the book.  She laid it open upon her hand, and flipped through to the passage that had caught her attention.

The spell told of the power to reshape the earth, to mold any rock in sight as if it were wet clay.  She thought to the time she lingered by the cove, and overheard the sound of humans, their strange tongues and slurred syllables.  She read the spell in a mimicked tone, and looked to the rough wall before her.  The rock began to move, retreat and condense, smooth and hollow.  A rumble began to echo, and grew louder with each second.  The wall shuddered, the new tunnel shook and collapsed, and rocks tumbled from the ceiling.  Alicia slammed the book shut and made for the crack.  She squeezed and slid, the space almost seeming to breathe in and out.  She emerged back into her home, to a sight that filled her with dread.

  The walls shook and boulders fell, the ground split and water spurted forth.  Citizens ran in terror, the exit blocked by a massive boulder, houses cracking and collapsing.  In but a minute’s time, the cavern fell still, the carnage’s wake all that remained.  Swirling eyes fell upon her, as she looked down to find the book clenched to her chest.

An hour passed, as she was accused of witchcraft, her disregard leading to damage and death to many, including her brother.  She was taken to the far wall, and a hidden door opened to the outside.  She was flung out into a grassy field, and the door shut behind her, the rock returning to a seamless texture.  The ocean would offer no bounty to her now, her amphibious nature now stuck in the land of humans.

Tears streamed from her eyes, but through the haze she saw a forest in the distance.  Once a huntress of the seas, she would become so again upon the ground, she would have to survive, alone, with all she could call family gone forever.  Or so she would think for many years…


End file.
